Yes Bank to launch SIM sleeve payments solution for feature phones

Yes Bank, India's fifth largest private sector bank, is introducing a wafer thin SIM sleeve enabled payments solutions for the feature phone. Applying the principles of design thinking, the bank has come up with this solution aimed primarily at a segment of unbanked or under banked customers who do not have access to data connectivity.

The YES PAYMENTS SIM Sleeve is a wafer-thin sticker which can be stuck on any type of SIM card of any Telco service provider - Standard, Micro and Nano. The sticker installs a Sim Tool Kit (STK) based app which can be accessed by the consumer on any mobile phone without the need for internet connectivity. "The YES PAYMENTS wafer is linked to a Prepaid Wallet which can be loaded by the consumer to perform various types of transactions. The transactions are performed using a patented encrypted SMS technology to communicate with the servers of the Bank," informed Ritesh Pai, Senior President & Country Head, Digital Banking, Yes Bank.

The transactions currently offered in the program include Person to Person (P2P) fund transfers, Person to Account (P2A) fund transfers using NEFT and IMPS, balance checking, Payments to anyone using a mobile number/email ID, checking of last few transactions, Payments to merchant for small and large value purchases and payment of bills; top-ups, recharges, etc.

The solution is device agnostic so it works with a feature phone or smart phone. Being telco agnostic it works with any telecom operator independent of the underlying SIM Card. The solution takes care of the security aspect through the patented secure encrypted SMS technology. The SMS is not stored on the phone.

"The cost per transaction will be less 20 paisa, which is the lowest in the country," said Pai.

With over 900 million connections, the mobile phone penetration in India stands at 75%. This is much higher than the number of bank accounts in the country. "Out of the 900 million mobile phones in the country, only about 200 million smart-phones exist. Further, there are about 150 million smart phones which have access to data connection. These data connection enabled smart phones have brought in the mobile apps- based revolution and fuelled self-enablement of users for various services," he stated.

Financial services have also seen a fillip with launch of Banking, Payments and other digital financial services apps.

However, these apps are unable to satisfy the need of self-service based financial services to the majority of the population because of limited penetration of smart phones, fewer number of data connectivity enabled smart phones, security concerns, patchy internet connectivity on smart phones and the underlying cost of doing transactions to the consumers.

The wafer thin SIM sleeve enabled payments solutions will help overcome these challenges.

The solution will be launched by the end of this month. Yes Bank is working with various stakeholders to take this solution to market for providing digital payments access to the masses.

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